Exclusion and the Golden Door: U.S. Immigration Policy

Jonathan T. Lyons

Political Science

Capstone Fall 2007

Overview

• Policy History from 1790-Present

• How stereotypes and xenophobia influenced policy development

• Current Status of Immigration

First Immigration Legislation

• Act of March 26th, 1790– Set residency requirement for citizenship at 2

years

• Act of January 29th, 1795– Requirement amended to 5 years

• Federalists vs. Jeffersonians

Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)• Naturalization Act

• Alien and Alien Enemy Acts

• Sedition Act-Infringement on Free Speech

John Adams

Open-Door Era (1790-1882)• Federalist acts expired with

Thomas Jefferson Presidency

• After the founding of the U.S. immigration is encouraged

• 1819- “An act regulating passenger ships and vessels”– Began recording the number

of immigrants entering the United States

Thomas Jefferson

Open-Door Era

• 1821-1830: 143,439 immigrants arrive

• President John Tyler encourages immigration in his message to the 22nd Congress in 1841

• “We hold out the to the people of other countries an invitation to come and settle among us”

Opposition to Early Immigration

• The Irish Potato Famine (1845-1851) and crop failures in Germany resulted in heavy Irish/German immigration

• Irish immigrants are almost exclusively Catholic, German immigrants have large Catholic segment

• Nativist sentiments emerged in northern cities such as Boston and New York

The Gold Rush: Immigration Explosion

• 1848-James W. Marshall discovers gold in the American River outside Sacramento

• Gold discovery inspires an explosion in immigration, especially from China

• 1841-1850: 1,713,251 immigrants arrive

• 1850-United States census records the “nativity” of citizens

Know-Nothing Movement (American Party)

• Began as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner– Members had to be native-

born white Protestants

– Their oath: “to resist the insidious policy of the Church of Rome…by placing in all offices native-born Protestant citizens” Know-Nothing Party Flag

Open-Door Era

• 1851-1870: 4,913,039 immigrants arrive

• 1862-Homestead Act

• 1863-Central Pacific and Union Pacific hire Chinese and Irish laborers respectively to construct first transcontinental railroad– Completed at Promontory Summit, Utah on

May 10th, 1869

Chinese Exclusion Act

• Signed May 6th, 1882

• Reaction to rapid expansion of Chinese immigration

• First act directed at a nationality

• Beginning of “Door-Ajar” Era

Door-Ajar Era

• January 1st, 1892-Ellis Island opens

• May 1892-Geary Act– Extends exclusion of

Chinese 10 additional years

– Required all Chinese to obtain a certificate of residence within one year

– Excluded Chinese from being witnesses

Door-Ajar Era

• 1904-Chinese Exclusion Act extended indefinitely• Immigration Act of February 20th, 1907• Created the Dillingham Commission

– Distinguished between “old” and “new” immigrants

– Conclusions led to the establishment of Quota Acts

• Immigration Act of 1917-Asiatic Barred Zone

Asiatic Barred Zone

Quota System

• Began with Emergency Quota Act of 1921

• Immigrants could only constitute 3% of their country’s existing population in the U.S. according to 1910 census data

• 357,000 per year• President Calvin Coolidge:

“America is for Americans”

Calvin Coolidge

Quota System

• Albert Johnson-chairman of House of Representatives C.I.N.

• Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924– Changed quota to 2% of resident nationalities– Reduced annual total immigration to 150,000 – Shifted back to 1890 census as benchmark

National Origins System

• Created in the Johnson-Reed Act but delayed until 1929

• Eugenics-driven policy

• “Encouraged” immigration of “old” Northwestern Europeans and discouraged “new” immigration from Southeastern Europe

Immigration During Quota System

• National Origins made no specifications against immigrants from Western Hemisphere

• Coolidge saw limits on this type of immigration as counterproductive

• Mexicans welcomed during labor shortage of World War I, then deported during Great Depression

Bracero Program

• 1942-Agreement between Mexico and U.S.– Contracted over 4.5

million Mexican nationals for work on U.S. farms

– “Mojados” undocumented Mexican laborers

Bracero Program

• Postwar economy was strong, due in part to Bracero labor

• Mexican laborers filled void left by exclusion of Asian immigrants and National Origin Systems

• 1954- “Operation Wetback” enacted to stem the tide of undocumented laborers

Civil Rights Legislation

• December 31, 1964-Bracero Program ends

• Immigration Act of 1965– Ended the quota system– First regulation of

Western Hemisphere immigration

– Set limit of 20,000 visas per year on nations of Eastern Hemisphere

Lyndon B. Johnson

Shift in Ethnicity

• Act of 1965 stimulated Asian immigration

• Western Europe was economically prosperous, Eastern Europe under Soviet influence

• Increase in refugees from Latin American and Asian countries during wartime

Illegal Immigration

• 1980-number of legal immigrants entering annually reaches 500,000

• 1986-Immigration Reform and Control Act– Placed sanctions on

employers who hired illegal immigrants

– Offered amnesty, 2 million undocumented immigrants gained eventual citizenship

Proposition 187

• Passed by California in 1994

• Denied public benefits to illegal aliens

• Immediately blocked and then overturned by Supreme Court in 1998

Gray Davis

Post 9/11 Immigration Policy

• March 1, 2003-INS transitions into U.S.C.I.S.

• Department of Homeland Security

• Creation of Immigration Customs and Enforcement

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

• J.W. Barnes, Senior Special Agent

• Current illegal population grossly underestimated

• Border towns controlled, deserts are a revolving door

• Only illegal immigrants deported easily are those with a criminal record

Proposed Legislation

• Amnesty

• Real ID

• Guest-Worker Program

• Project 28

• June 28th, 2007-Senate votes to block massive reform of U.S. immigration policy

2008 Presidential Candidates

Candidates Statements and Recent Voting

• Clinton and Obama-both gave speeches using the phrase “out of the shadows”

• In favor of C.I.R.A. of 2006

• Huckabee-voting record favors helping illegal aliens within U.S.

• Romney-empowered MA police to arrest and deport illegal aliens

Conclusions

• Stereotypes and anti-foreign sentiments influenced policy development

• Current policy in need of overhaul

• How will U.S. immigration policy further develop?

Further Reading

• Beasley, Vanessa B., ed. 2006. Who Belongs in America? Presidents, Rhetoric, and Immigration. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press

• Daniels, Roger. 2004. Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882. New York, NY: Hill and Wang Publishing

• Hutchinson, E.P. 1981. Legislative History of American Immigration Policy 1798-1965. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press

• King, Desmond. 2000. Making Americans: Immigration, Race, and the Origins of the Diverse Democracy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press